Will tropical coral reefs be the first ecosystem to be eliminated by climate change?

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Too painful to bear

The Belize Barrier Reef is "fragile and needs special care; losing [its] wonder and beauty for future generations because of short term gain and greed would be too painful to bear" - Candy Gonzalez of the Belize Institute of Environmental Law and Policy (BELPO) in a BBC report published earlier today about a UNESCO meeting.

Too painful for who?

Environmental groups have lodged petitions with UNESCO charging that four sites including the Belize Reef are threatened by greenhouse gas emissions. Can this make a difference, and if so how? The petition for the BBR (dated 15 Nov '04) said:

Petitioner BELPO requests assistance under the [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] for the protection of the Belize Barrier Reef from the detrimental impacts of global climate change and the compound effects of other threats to the reef that will make the Belize Barrier Reef less resilient to global climate change impacts. An appropriate scheme of financial support for design and implementation for this program is also requested.

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"Mike", the world's first hydrogen bomb, vaporised Elugelap island and other parts of the Enewetak atoll on 1 November 1952. In the half century or so since then humans have destroyed around a quarter - some say a half - of all tropical coral reefs, which are one the world's richest and oldest ecosystems and provide vital benefits in over 100 countries. Will the rest be gone within another fifty years - or less? So what?

Please note that this blog is now pretty much 'on hold', with only occasional updates since January 2008. For notes on the Anthropocene extinction and what comes next see The Book of Barely Imagined Beings.